What?
Some time yesterday, someone at AOL uploaded a zipped file to a public AOL Web site. That file contained timestamped user search queries, along with the domain name the user ultimately clicked on as a result of that search. Each query is labeled with an identification number unique to each user. Around 10 p.m. Eastern time last night, this file was taken off AOL’s site.
The Numbers
Search data for 658,000 users.
Time period covering three months, from March to May.
About 20 million individual queries.
439 MB, compressed. 2 GB, uncompressed in tab-delinieated .txt format.
The Fallout
An AOL spokesman has been posting on various blogs about the topic, saying “This was a screw up …”
Well no kidding. While the searchers themselves aren’t identified, who hasn’t googled themselves? The town they live in?
Can AOL recover, or are they on an even faster way out than they were before?
I imagine they would have access to the IP addresses of anyone who downloaded the file. AOL should be tracking down everyone who downloaded that file and trying very hard to get it deleted.
I’m not sure what sort of debate is expected, here. It looks more like a place to post opinions/guesses about the ramifications to the exposed users and AOL.
Filter the list by user ID, time and date, search keyword or website clicked on.
I can tell you that some search terms that resulted in www.straightdope.com being clicked on were “one testicle”, “preparation h”, “chocolate dogs”, “jesus and a prostitute”, “abilities of giant squid”, and “wives willing to have sex other men”.
I can also tell you, in an example of how personally identifiable this data can be, that there is a screenname in my hometown who searched for what is probably his name (first middle last), he’s looking into buying a car, he lost his license but paid the fines and is trying to figure out what to do next, is replacing his overhead kitchen light, searched on popular buildings in town, is looking to duplicate recipes from chain restaurants, wants to find some stickers for his car and also some rims, and is apparently married to an illegal alien from mexico.
Just in my normal surfing (not even looking for it), i’ve seen people linking to several different mirrors of the data - like Musicat says, if it’s up there once, it’s up there for keeps.
Btw, looking at my account I notice that keywords my wife searched under (her s/n is subordinant to mine, the main account) also display as well under my name.
For example, looking up searches my wife has made on “Buffy”, it comes up with 29 different searches. When looking up searches I made on “Buffy”, it comes up with the same 29 searches. I’m pretty sure they’re not mine because I haven’t accessed my AOL account in quite a few months.
I’m still using AOL and our message boards were all abuzz yesterday because they dropped their dial-up member rates to 9.95 a month. With their other free services and already confirmed suckitude, I don’t see how AOL is going to last much longer.
What % of the WORLD is on broadband compared to dial-up?
What will be the effect of the government charging for broadband if that bill passes?
What email client has better, FASTER, safer, easier, client to client email service at dial-up speeds?
For traveling to less than major cities where dial-up is all there is, what Internet client do you all suggest?
AOHell has problems.
What solutions do you all suggest that will solve EVERYONE’S needs, not just your own?
